New York Central Trackage In Buffalo, NY in 1950

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This page contains links to both 1950 U.S. Geological Survey Maps and Aerial
Photos from 1951. In each case the aerial photo has been formatted to match the
corresponding map as closely as possible. The USGS maps were scanned and
reduced to black & white images with as few shades of gray as possible to
minimize file size and download time as some of them are quite large. Likewise
the aerial photos were saved as 16 grey shade gif images to remain managable. A
number of the aerial photos were pieced together from several images and as a
result you may notice parting lines where the photo angle or altitude differed
slightly.

For most people, passenger trains were their main contact with the railroad.
In Buffalo this meant they frequently spent time at NYC's Central Terminal in
East Buffalo. This map covers the terminal area including the Railway Express
building, Tower 48, the Steam Plant, the Post Office, a portion of the Stock
Yards and the Buffalo Creek interchange. The street known as "Lindbergh" is now
Memorial Drive. While most of the tracks and the Steam Plant are gone, the
terminal building itself and the REA building still stand although long
abandoned. For more information and history on Buffalo Central Terminal
including the current restoration efforts please visit our
Buffalo Central Terminal website.

NYC's East Buffalo Yard was the forerunner to today's CSX Frontier Yard. It
originated as two separate yards. The north yard was the New York, West Shore &
Buffalo's and the south yard was the New York Central & Hudson River RR's. The
yard was completely rebuilt in the middle 1950's and at that time was touted as
the most modern freight yard in the world. This map shows the original NYC
consolidated yards, engine facility, Pullman car shops with the NYC's original
roundhouse, Tower 47, the connection to the Erie RR's Niagara Falls Branch and
the lead to the NYC East Buffalo Car Shops and Stock Yards.

This map shows the NYC Stock Yards which once fed the largest meat packing
plant in the world. The large building on the right side of the yard was the
NYC's East Buffalo Car Shops. Running along the east side of the building was
the Erie's Niagara Falls Branch which has been abandoned since the early 1980's.
I don't know when the Stock Yards were dismantled, but there is a bulk loading
facility in this area today. There is also one track called "The President's
Track" where Office Car Specials lay over in Buffalo. This area is still
referred to as the Stock Yards today. Central Terminal is to the left, the
East Buffalo Yard is to the right and the Erie's East Buffalo Yard (now CP's
SK Yard) is at the bottom.

The downtown Buffalo area was a mess of railroads on its south side well into
the 1960's. This map illustrates the tremendous activity in this area for both
freight and passenger trains. The NYC, PRR, Erie and Lehigh Valley all served
both passengers and freight in the downtown area. The NYC had torn down their
Exchange Street Depot in 1935 after allowing it to deteriorate for several
years following the construction of Central Terminal in 1929. Until the 1950's
NYC commuters were only provided with platforms along the tracks, at the left
of the map, as shelter. In contrast the Lehigh Valley maintained a large
downtown terminal (shown) until 1955 when New York State bought LV's downtown right of
way for the Niagara Section of the NYS Thruway. The Erie also provided adequate
facilities at Michigan and Exchange Streets which was used into the 1950's
before moving over to the elegant DL&W Terminal on the waterfront, just out of
view on the map at the lower left. NYC maintained a large freight house on
Carroll St. which was finally torn down in the late 1980's. PRR shoehorned
their freight facilities in between the Central's trackage and Seneca St.
Right up until the merger they were forced to cross NYC's 4 track mainline at
grade to reach their downtown facilities.

While the NYC didn't have any trackage running past FW Tower, two other roads,
the Buffalo Creek and PRR did. The Buffalo Creek (owned by the Erie and the LV)
interchanged with the NYC about a half mile north of FW at a junction
controlled by Tower 49 at Central Terminal. The PRR was forced to cross the
NYC main at Tower 49A in order to reach their downtown facilities. The Erie
crossed both the PRR and BCK at FW to reach their downtown stations and
Exchange St. car shops until the shop complex was razed sometime prior to 1950.
As shown by the map here, everyone connected with everyone else here! I had the
great fortune as a teenager to spend a number of afternoons around 1976 in FW Tower with the
second trick operator, Scotty Whitehead. Even in 1976 it was a fantastic railfanning
location. Conrail retired the interlocking around 1983 and streamlined the
trackage. For those who are interested
You Can Click Here for a
reminiscence of my introduction to FW.

As I lived about one mile east of Tower H (still do) it was a favorite spot for me during
my teenage years in the 70's. In 1950 this area must have been a hotbed of
activity with three yards in view at once. The NYC maintained a small yard at
this location to service the local industries. The Erie and DL&W each had yards
for their interchange to Canada via the adjacent International Bridge over the
Niagara River. The NYC's Belt Line joined their Niagara Falls Branch here in a
multiple tracked wye. Despite what is shown on this map, the bridge over
Military Road on the east tip of the wye was 7 tracks wide! Crosscut Junction
at Elmwood Avenue served several industries on its way over to its own
connection with the Niagara Branch near the Tonawanda Street Freight House
creating a large "reverse loop" in concert with the south leg of the wye at H.
The Erie's Black Rock Branch from International Junction paralleled the Belt
Line just west of Crosscut and then crossed the north and west legs of the wye
at H in order to reach their Black Rock Yard. The DL&W interchanged with the
NYC just north of H on the Niagara Branch. While demonstrative of the volume
of trackage in this area, this map is not "track accurate" for this location.
Today all that is left in this area is the double track on the Belt choking
down to a single switch at the east tip of the wye, single track on each leg of
the wye, three tracks running north from the wye and a single track running
south toward downtown. The DL&W is completely gone as is the Erie, both
victims of Conrail's 1983 streamlining. A single track just south of the wye
connects to the International Bridge to Canada and only Amtrak uses the Niagara
Branch to the south to Exchange Street Station in Downtown Buffalo. Crosscut
was severed at Scajacquada Creek in the 80's and the switch at the Belt was
finally removed in 1999. Tower H was torn down in 1998, a victim of Conrail's
"scorched earth" policy before I was able to arrange to purchase it. While
this area is not even a shadow of its former self, it is still a good place
to catch meets at "CP I" which is the switch immediately west of Military
Road. I still visit this location once or twice a week.

Gardenville Yards were part of the NYC's famous Gardenville Cutoff plan of the
late 1880's. In order to avoid the congestion and delays of running through
East and South Buffalo the NYC decided to build a double tracked line south
from Lancaster to what became Bayview Junction also known as "BV" Tower.
Because this would bypass the East and South Buffalo Yards they decided to
build a yard complex on this line. For years it was the main Buffalo area yard.
As it was superceded by the modern Frontier Yard project of the mid 50's and
subsequently dismantled it is largely forgotten today. The yard included a
sizable engine facility as shown on the map. Just south of the yard was
Ebenezer Junction with the PRR which is covered in the following map. About
10 years ago I went looking for remnants of Gardenville with my father and it
was hard to even find where the northern portion was located. All that's
left today is a short spur running north from CP "GJ" (Gardenville
Jct./Ebenezer Jct.) and the cut in Lancaster running under the LV,
Erie and DL&W rights of way.

Sorry, no Aerial Photo Available.

This map shows the junction of the NYC and PRR just south of the Gardenville Yard
complex. The NYC Gardenville Cutoff crossed the PRR's Buffalo to Renovo line
at grade just west of Ebenezer Junction Yard. Most of the Cutoff south of here still
exists, it was used by Conrail for trains running from Seneca Yard in
Lackawanna to points south on the ex-PRR Buffalo Line. Only a stub spur is
left on the right side of the map now, the ex-PRR line is now single track
with a siding here, all the yards shown here are now gone, but the roundhouse
shown on the map is still in use by a freight car rebuilder! The PRR line to
left is long gone and the lower leg of the wye now connects to ex-NYC track.
The future of the remaining portion is uncertain as NS now owns the PRR and
NYC Gardenville line and CSX owns the ex-NYC Seneca Yard. If a project to
rebuild the second drawbridge over the Buffalo River in order to separate CSX
and NS operations comes to fruition it is highly unlikely that NS will have
any further use for the Cutoff.

This map shows another maze of trackage as all the trunk lines ran parallel to
each other in this area. At the bottom of this map is the South Buffalo Railway
which primarily served Bethlehem Steel's huge Lackawanna complex. Just above
(on the map and literally!) the SB was the Lehigh Valley's line to their
Tifft St. Yards and Lake Erie dock facilities. Moving up is the NYC's Chicago Main Line
and Lackawanna Yard. Next up is the Erie's Buffalo & Southwestern line. Just
above that is the Nickel Plate Road and finally the PRR line to points south.
Of particular interest is the right side of the map where the NYC's
Gardenville Cutoff turned south with a westbound flyover of the main line and
gradual descent on substantial embankments for both the eastbound and
westbound line to the interlocking at Bayview. A connection from the NYC's and
SB's Lackawanna yards to the Cutoff was just east of the bridge over the PRR,
NKP and Erie. The PRR and NKP shared lines from here south, in effect creating
a double track railroad and expediting traffic movement. The NYC was six tracks
from here to "BV" Tower where the Cutoff joined in and it reduced to four
tracks. Today the connection to the Cutoff is long gone and only portions of
the eastbound embankment testify to its existence. The LV and PRR are both
history, the Erie is now the Buffalo Southern and the single track NKP is now
the Norfolk Southern. The South Buffalo is still running, serving the remnants
of Bethlehem Steel and a Ford plant. Seneca Yard is still busy for CSX, at
least until the bean counters get another "Brilliant Idea" and strangle
themselves again. Lake Ave. is still a great place to watch trains, although
it can't be anywhere near in the same class it once was as a railfan spot.
We have quite a few modern
day pictures from Lake Ave. here.